After Virginia took a halftime lead Monday night against Norfolk State, the Cavaliers seemed to open the second half with visions of sugar-plums already dancing in their heads. A timeout and multiple substitutions from Tony Bennett snapped the early Christmas daze, however, as the Hoos claimed a 66-56 victory at the John Paul Jones Arena.
While it wasn’t a smooth sailing win by any means, it pushed UVa to 9-3 with one non-conference game remaining at Tennessee next week.
“Probably what is different about this team maybe than last year is that we’ve won some games not playing our best basketball, where we’ve had different guys struggle,” Bennett said. “We’re still searching a little bit and I think we’re getting a little closer these last couple of games, but we still can play better. We haven’t played some of our best basketball, but found ways to win some games. Then the ones we lost, those lapses cost us. … It’s there but we’ve just got to keep coming. We’ll have to improve to compete in our league. Our league is better this year it appears so I guess somewhat encouraged but hopeful that we’ll take another step.”
The Wahoos owned a 32-26 lead at intermission, but Norfolk State came out of the locker room channeling the Grinch. Four Spartan steals led to a 6-0 run, a 32-32 tie, and a timeout from an unpleased Bennett just 2:23 into the half. The hosts exited that stop in play with Akil Mitchell, Anthony Gill, and Teven Jones entering the line-up for Malcolm Brogdon, Justin Anderson, and Darion Atkins. That trio joined Joe Harris and London Perrantes to spark a 12-2 Virginia run over the next 3:50 and UVa never truly let NSU back in it.
During that key run, Gill scored a bucket and drew multiple fouls, while Jones made 2 of 3 free throws after getting hit on a 3-point attempt. Mitchell, meanwhile, scored a lay-up courtesy of a Perrantes’ dump-down assist and then returned the sharing spirit with two great passes of his own. In both cases, Mitchell caught the ball in the short corner and spotted a player diving through the paint. Gill made both free throws after being fouled on his catch, while Harris came through with a traditional 3-point play on the other Mitchell feed.
“I think the mistakes early on kind of woke us up. Everybody kind of got going, the bench was lively and Coach Bennett was breathing down our neck to get stops and get us going,” Mitchell said. “Teven is a great defender. I know where AG is at all times and he’s so good at moving without the ball so I just tried to get the guys motivated as much as possible.”
While that burst helped the Hoos build as much as a 15-point lead with 8:18 to go in the second half, they never threw a true knockout punch Monday. Norfolk State closed to 54-47 when Brogdon knocked down a 3-pointer courtesy of an Anderson pass and the Spartans were within 64-56 late as well, but the Cavaliers made enough free throws at the end to put it away.
Still, a lackadaisical moment from Brogdon with 1:13 to go led to a head-scratching turnover and an irate Bennett timeout. Brogdon lost track of State’s Marese Phelps and basically handed the ball to him near midcourt. While Harris blocked Phelps’ lay-up attempt going the other way, Bennett wanted to have a conversation with Brogdon and the team in a timeout huddle.
The message? Those sorts of mental lapses from early and late in the second half must improve. The Cavaliers finished with 12 turnovers for the game and 11 assists.
“Here’s the deal, to start the way we did in the second half is unacceptable. It looked like we were just kind of messing around,” Bennett said. “Malcolm, why I got after him at the end … is that we’ve had situations late in games where we’ve just handed the ball away and they almost don’t make sense and there has got to be some accountability for that. That drove me crazy I’ll be honest with you watching us flip the ball around. That stretch to start the second half and a little bit of a stretch at the very end, you were enough ahead that it didn’t cost you, but you’re going to have to clean that up. They did a lot of good things, they really did. They extended the lead in the second half and I was excited, but somehow we’ve got to not be perfect, but we’ve got to eliminate those [turnovers]. Sometimes it looks like we’re sleep-walking out there for a stretch and it can’t be that way. But we can clean that up and we’ll have to.”
The inconsistent play overall has led to some line-up searches from Bennett. Against NSU, he started with a four-guard look featuring Anderson and Atkins in the post. That move helped get the team going against Northern Iowa on Saturday. Anderson helped UVa jet out to a 7-0 lead with a pair of jumpers and ended up with 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists. Harris joined him in double digits with 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists on a night when he made 6 of 7 free throws (the Hoos knocked in 27 of 39 as a team).
The opening shuffle meant Mitchell was out of the starting group for the first time this season. Mitchell finished with 8 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals off the bench. Gill, meanwhile, added 7 points, 1 block, and 1 steal in 10 second-half minutes. He did not play in the first half as Evan Nolte picked up some post minutes; Nolte didn’t play after intermission, though. None of the players seem bothered by the ongoing hunt.
“I’ve been struggling lately. It’s something every player goes through. I’m not bothered by it too much and when I get in, I only care about winning,” Mitchell said.
“It was fine. I sat down and talked with Coach Bennett and he told me just to be ready. I trust him one hundred percent, and whatever he wants me to do, I’ll do it for him,” Gill said. “I’ll run through a wall for him, and he wanted me to sit out the first half, which I was fine with.”
Long story short, Bennett is still trying to find the right rotation to maximize the team’s potential. He had thought of dialing back the rotation to eight players against Norfolk State, but turned to 10 players and got a big boost from Gill and Jones, who didn’t figure into the initial shortening equation for this particular game.
“It’s a moving target, I’ve got to be honest,” Bennett said. “I wish I could say I’ve got this thing and this is like an NBA team and at this minute mark, this guy is coming in. Nobody has disqualified himself from being in the rotation. … I tried to play with four guards because that helped us in the game before. … I think they’re all capable. Each game dictates something different. … There are different match-ups that call for different things.”
